Is Vietlott still “hot”?

Vietnam Lottery Company (Vietlott) has just published its financial report for the first half of 2019, with a net revenue of only VND1.17 trillion ($50.87 million), down nearly 40 per cent on-year.

Vietlott recorded a pre-tax profit of nearly VND80 billion ($3.48 million) in the first half of 2019, down 70 per cent compared to the VND262 billion ($11.39 million) last year.

Vietlott explained that the reason is that in the first half of last year the VND300 billion Jackpot prize of Power 6/55 attracted a great many customers, while this year the product continuously found winners and the Jackpot prize (which grows each time no winner is found) did not grow high enough to entice players.

Previously, Vietlott reported a profit of over VND270 billion ($11.74 million) in 2018, increasing by 25 per cent against 2017 mainly because the Jackpot eluded winners for a long time.

By the end of June 2019, the total assets of Vietlott were worth VND926 billion ($40.26 million), 95 per cent of which is short-term financial investments.

Recently, Vietlott had about 3,800 points of sale, 500 fewer compared to the end of January 2019. Ho Chi Minh City particularly lost more than 300 points, to remain just over 1,000 points.

According to its development strategy to 2025 with vision to 2034, Vietlott expects to have 10,000 terminals nationwide in 2020.

Vietlott targets to increase its annual average revenue by 20 per cent. However, looking back on 2017-2018, Vietlott’s target seems out of reach. Meanwhile, traditional lottery companies have been reporting healthy increases in revenue and profit.

According to the Southern Lottery Council, in 2018, the revenue of the 21 lottery companies in the south reached VND82.74 trillion ($3.6 billion), including VND82.3 trillion ($3.58 billion) from traditional lottery companies, an increase of 16.65 per cent compared to 2017. In the first quarter of 2019, the revenue from lottery was reported at VND23.86 trillion ($1.04 billion), VND23.664 trillion ($1.03 billion) of which came from traditional lottery, an increase of 13.39 per cent compared to the same period.

Ho Chi Minh City Lottery Co.,Ltd. now leads the lottery market with a revenue of VND7.72 trillion ($335.65 million) in 2018. A number of provincial lottery companies also gained huge revenue, such as Tay Ninh with VND4.162 trillion ($180.96 million), Tien Giang with VND4.515 trillion ($196.3 million), or Dong Nai with VND4.11 trillion ($178.7 million). VIR